Boot Snow Leopard into 64-bit mode

December 2, 2009

Transcript

[ Music ] ^m00:00:09
>> Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a 64 bit operating system, but by default it boots into 32 bit mode. The recent release of HandBrake with 64 bit support, reminded me that you can manually boot up Snow Leopard in 64 bit mode. So if you're running a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Zion processor, you can take advantage of this feature; but then some Mac's with 64 bit processors won't be able to load the 64 bit kernel, because they have a 32 bit EFI - which stands for Extensible Firmware Interface. Sure, that may sound confusing, but here check out this list of 64 bit bootable Macs. Now if you're still not sure, you can open up the terminal and enter in this command, and it will tell you if you have an EFI 32 or EFI 64. Now if you're ready to try it out, all you have to do is hold the 6 and 4 on your keyboard when you start up. You can verify it worked by opening the system profile or application in the Utilities folder, and then check out the software system overview. Snow Leopard still runs 64 bit apps whether it's booted up into 32 bit, or the 64 bit kernel, and really the main advantage is for people who want to use systems with more than 32 gigs of RAM. That's a whole lot. I'm Brian Tong with CNET.com with your how-to for booting Snow Leopard into 64 bit mode. Use it wisely. ^m00:01:22 [ Music ]